TASCAM MSR24 mixer advice

[HomeGos]

Its been years since I dont use this forum, its good to be back...my tascam family got bigger..a good story here I could explain in a few words...a broadcast school was shutted down...and they didnt want a lot of toys..

Im trying to hookup everything I got and turned it into a small analog studio, just repaired and service an old tascam msr24 tracks 1 inch machine...but it was a pain in the.. just to transfer all 24 tracks to DAW on my first paid job...I didnt have a proper mixer...so I had to do it with my tascam 388 pgm bus 8 ins 8 outs...wich was the only one that aceepted -10dbs signals... channel 7 was dead..I realized my topaz mini had a couple of -10dbs channels...so I made 3 turns of 8 tracking to complete the 24...to cubase...recording one clap signal on all 24 tracks to be able to synchronise later on cubase.....the lp ( wich was recorded 14 years ago...kind of a death metal band)

Ive got the opportunity to buy a tascam 520 mixer wich Im in love ( first demos and first studio I recorded as a musician had that board) do u recommend that mixer ? only 3 hours away by car...and good price

but my main question IS: does all that rca in and outs do they work at -10dbs? how does combine with modern +4dbs gear, such as daw interface like my focusrite pro40 or rmes firefaces...etc... Tascamconfused here

greetings to all u sweetbeats, a reel person, cjakec...u ve been allways light in the darkest hours

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Couple of thoughts here.

First off, if you've got a 24 track recorder, you'd ideally want a 24 channel or higher mixer to team up with that. The M-520 is short 4 channels.

The M-520 does have an 8 channel RCA unbalanced to +4db balanced output sub-system component built right in. So if you do need to convert those RCA outs, the M-520 can be of some assistance there.

Now, there are some other built in "cheats" on the M-520 such as the 16 dedicated tape return sub-mix section which can be used to feed the stereo buss but will lack any eq or aux sends, so those might be used for a few tracks that require no further processing once tracked.

Hopefully a few other folks will chime in with their opinions/thoughts on this.

Cheers!

 

[HomeGos]

Couple of thoughts here.

First off, if you've got a 24 track recorder, you'd ideally want a 24 channel or higher mixer to team up with that. The M-520 is short 4 channels.

The M-520 does have an 8 channel RCA unbalanced to +4db balanced output sub-system component built right in. So if you do need to convert those RCA outs, the M-520 can be of some assistance there.

Now, there are some other built in "cheats" on the M-520 such as the 16 dedicated tape return sub-mix section which can be used to feed the stereo buss but will lack any eq or aux sends, so those might be used for a few tracks that require no further processing once tracked.

Hopefully a few other folks will chime in with their opinions/thoughts on this.

Cheers!

Hello Ghost nice to hear from u too and all tascam users out there!, well 4 tracks I could process them with a little mixer if it was needed...I wanted to know why -10dbs is better for tape and +4dbs is a modern standard...and what mixers were designed for accepting both kinds of signal ( soundcraft, mackie,tascams, etc.. ) the market is full of analog boards but mainly live desks...Ive heard is the best option is a little MIDAS like a venice , for my studio, but is still a live desk in my opinion and blah blah blah...I ve got a lot of tascam recorders now, and tape hunting will be necessary..not easy here in Spain, Europe...what happened to rmgi?

my main option was to have a pure analog rig...so a BIG mixer ( amek, midas, DDA, tascam, mackie, soundcraft, soundtracs ) will be needed...here is my tascam family, not all working order but half of them ( tascam msr24, tsr8 x2, cassette deck 112 mk2, a 32, a 388, 3 mx2424, one portable dat dap1 and a d-20, and a 4 track portastudio mk2

I imagine someone could design a powered patchbay...to convert -10dbs to +4dbs 24 rcas to 24 jacks? would be a nice project to DAW tracks directly to cubase...anyone had the same trouble with DAW flirting?

 

[The Ghost of FM]

I wanted to know why -10dbs is better for tape and +4dbs is a modern standard.

There's nothing "modern" about +4db signal chains. It was invented out of necessity by the telephone company to deal with sending a signal over vast distances and dealing with the noise and interference that was being picked up on those lines. Home studios generally aren't dealing with vast distances between recorders and mixers which made employing +4db balanced lines un-nesasary.

A lot of PA type mixers will use balanced +4db lines because the mixer is often more then 25 feet away from the stage where all the microphone lines and PA amps are.

25 Feet is around the cutoff point of where unbalanced -10db lines are no longer suitable and because of noise and signal loss issues, +4db lines become needed and employed.

I don't have a full enough knowledge of the rest of the mixer marketplace to make a valid suggestion as to which mixer will be right for your specific needs. My experience is mostly with TASCAM boards as that's what I've owned and used.

Cheers!

 

[HomeGos]

My experience is mostly with TASCAM boards as that's what I've owned and used.

Cheers!

Good to know the reason for balanced and unbalanced, the ways the industry evolves are sometimes mistical and suspìcious although there are most of the times hidden reasons and rooted decisions that someone took maybe decades ago...now its hard to find interest in keeping analog alive nowaddays, tascam comes to mind, i think its making a slow but huge comeback the tape thing and analog culture alive, its still alive and theres still interest but maybe and economic and a serious competition to lot of crap they try to sell us, usually expensive crap

if u name your favourite tascam analog boards that would be a great help, and a little opinion on them... main goal is to mix keeping away computers...but probalby depending on them for a lot of jobs

 

[The Ghost of FM]

My favorite board was the M-312B. I liked it because it had all the routing possibilities that I needed including a "cascade" feature, which allowed two boards to be tied together electronically for when more inputs were needed.

I used to have the MS-16, 16 track recorder and used it with two M-312B cascaded together to create a 24 channel board. That configuration worked well for me as it gave me all the tape returns I needed and also left me with 8 more channel strips for things like dedicated input strips for tracking and reverb return strips that were eq'able and assignable for tracking or mixdowns. I also like the 300 series boards because they were clean sounding and very user friendly.

The M520 also shares the cascade feature and there's nothing stopping you from cascading a 520 and a 512 together to get a similar setup to what I employed.

But there are also boards like the M3500 and M3700 which in one neat package gives you a 24 or 32 channel board to work with with balanced and unbalanced outs on an 8 buss output layout like the 520.

You might want to look around for a decent 3500 or 3700 too. They should should sound as good if not slightly better then the 300 and 500 series boards.

Cheers!